Where the events of the animated series "Masha and the Bear" take place, why is it popular in Muslim countries and other facts

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The girl who suggested the image of Masha to Oleg Kuzovkov now, perhaps, already has to raise her own fidgets - and probably with the help of their favorite animated series. This can be assumed with a great deal of confidence, because for the second decade the series "Masha and the Bear" has been breaking all popularity records, becoming for today's children something like a new "Well, wait a minute!"

The birth of the image of Masha

The idea of the cartoon was born back in the nineties, when the cartoonist Oleg Kuzovkov was vacationing at sea and saw a little girl who behaved exactly like the future Masha. She played, entertained others with her inventions, amused and from some moment forced to hide from this indomitable energy.

True, quite a few years have passed before the idea was put into practice. The pilot series Masha and the Bear was released in early 2009. Its creation took eight months - the same amount of time on average will then be spent on each new episode of the cartoon. In the process of work, the animators were inspired by the now classic cartoon "Tom and Jerry", but you can hardly find many similarities between the two projects. The relationship between Masha and the Bear is, rather, a reflection of the upbringing process, even if there is an almost constant conflict of interests between the calm Bear, who leads a measured life in the forest, and the restless Masha, who is constantly on the move and in the process of playing.

It is not known exactly how old the main character is, so the easiest way is to assume that she is the same age as every child who sits in front of the screen and watches her adventures. The audience knows nothing about Masha's parents - but the girl lives in a house with her own farm: chickens, goats, a pig. Masha has a sister named Dasha, who appears in some episodes: she wears glasses and has a more serious character.

In the series, different "doubles" of Masha appear every now and then: the "cave girl" who is friends with the Cave Bear and thanks to the time machine gets into the Bear's house, and the Little Mermaid, who is bored in the sunken ship at the bottom of the lake and is very glad of the opportunity finally play. Even the aliens who find themselves at the Bear's house as a result of the crash of their spaceship are similar to Masha.

How Masha and the Bear are raising children around the world

Already the first episodes made Masha and the Bear a leader among new cartoons and won children's hearts. Adults, however, no, no, and they expressed dissatisfaction - the pedagogical component in Masha's adventures is shifted into the background, if not sacrificed at all to the general mood. Imitation of machine tricks created problems for the parents of young viewers - after all, not everyone was ready, following the example of the Bear, to endure all new pranks and eliminate their consequences.

But the series "Masha and the Bear" eventually became the most watched - not only in Russia, but also in the world! Some "themed" episodes have surpassed the four billion impressions mark, such as "Masha Plus Porridge", which parents play with their children during meals. It’s not only about porridge and, in general, not only about the children's diet that is usual for Russia - the girl in the headscarf has become popular with children all over the world.

Since the cartoon is more of a pantomime with a small number of lines, which are uttered only by Masha and her sister Dasha, the series has been translated into many languages and is broadcast in many countries. An additional bonus was the appearance of the heroine, more precisely, her traditionally Russian outfit. Masha's headscarf and sundress allowed this project to become popular in the Muslim world. There was even a surge of interest in the name "Masha" - that is how newborn girls began to be called even in remote corners of the world, for example, in Indonesia.

On the American continent, the series about Masha is one of the ten most popular cartoons among children, and in Italy, nine out of ten kids are familiar with this heroine. "Masha and the Bear" really became an event in the world of animation. During the first seven years of production of the series, Masha was voiced by Alina Kukushkina, who later became a sound engineer. In order to "turn out" the famous laugh machines, the girl was amused and tickled. Alina's mother, Irina Kukushkina, voiced the Bear, and the voices of the Bear, wolves and other animals appeared in the cartoon thanks to sound engineer Boris Kutnevich.

"Masha and the Bear" as an encyclopedia of childhood

A lot of different stories fit into the general outline of the plot of the series - and fairy tales, and old legends, and references to various literary works (like O'Henry's "The Leader of the Redskins"), and simply descriptions of village life. It is no coincidence that the atmosphere in the Bear's house seems familiar - viewers of the older generations living in the post-Soviet space can easily recognize things, furniture from their past, which either live out their days in dachas or retain the image in their memory. And Masha, despite her young age, is well acquainted with the culture of past decades, sings songs of the Soviet era, knows games and rhymes forgotten by today's children.

As for the Bear, in the past he is a circus artist, which is reminded by numerous cups and awards, and the skills of an acrobat, which have not yet been lost over the years of rest. And now, in retirement, he is an exemplary owner: he keeps a garden and an apiary in order, performs all seasonal work, and goes into hibernation for the winter, as bears should. True, with the appearance of Mishka Masha in the life of the bear's winter sleep schedule, the Bear has to revise.

The Bear is a self-sufficient creature, he does not need the amount of communication that the extrovert Masha needs, but the Bear also has his own circle of acquaintances. In the first place is the Bear, which Bear is courting despite the competition from another bear and Masha's leprosy. Mishka has a lion friend, a nephew of Panda, and also a Penguin, an adopted son. The address where the hero of the series lives - a forest somewhere in the Tyumen region - such a conclusion can be drawn from Penguinenko's letter, which contains the index.

Since 2011, the stories about Masha have been supplemented by the series "Machines of a Tale", where the heroine, in her own manner, leads the story for her toys - confusing events, mixing different tales and invariably bringing out a happy ending. And three years later, "Mashkin's horror stories" were launched, which became an excellent tool in the fight against children's fears.

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